Verizon Completes Acquisition of Terremark

An aerial view of the NAP of the Capital Region, showing both completed data center buildings at the Terremark campus.

Verizon Communications (VZ) has closed its $1.4 billion acquisition of Terremark Worldwide, clearing the way for Verizon to lead the rapidly evolving global managed IT infrastructure and cloud services market, the company said today.

The acquisition was completed via a short-form merger under Delaware law, meaning no Terremark shareholder vote was required. Terremark will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Verizon. All outstanding Terremark shares were not tendered already were converted into the right to receive $19 per share in cash without interest, the same consideration paid to stockholders in the tender offer. With the closing of the deal, Terremark’s common stock (TMRK) will cease trading on NASDAQ.

Terremark, which will continue to be based in Miami, will help fuel overall Verizon growth by accelerating the company’s strategy to provide “everything-as-a-service” to business and government customers globally.

“There is a fundamental shift under way in how enterprises consume IT resources, and concluding this transaction is a turning point in Verizon’s push to provide integrated, enterprise-class cloud solutions and accelerate growth in this important segment,” said Robert Toohey, president of Verizon Business. “In the coming months, we’ll leverage our collective strengths to roll out a differentiated portfolio of secure, on-demand cloud computing solutions to be delivered through a unified enterprise IT platform.”

Verizon said the acquisition will accelerate its “everything-as-a-service” cloud computing strategy by adding a portfolio of secure, scalable cloud solutions, along with Terremark’s large base of business and government customers. Verizon also gets Terremark’s global network of 13 data centers, including the NAP of the Americas in Miami, the NAP of the Capital Region data fortress in Culpeper, Virginia and facilities in Silicon Valley, Dallas, Amsterdam and Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Terremark launched in 2000 by building one of the world’s largest data centers, the 750,000 square foot NAP of the Americas. The company survived a brutal downturn in the data center market, and was transformed by two key strategic moves in 2007: the decision to build the Virginia complex, and the acquisition of Data Return and its Infinistructure platform. These two events laid the foundation for the company’s success in the government and cloud computing sectors.

About the Author

Rich Miller is the founder and editor at large of Data Center Knowledge, and has been reporting on the data center sector since 2000. He has tracked the growing impact of high-density computing on the power and cooling of data centers, and the resulting push for improved energy efficiency in these facilities.

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